Bed of Flowers
by BewareTheDragon1
Summary: When a Soul dies, it disperses into the universe. Everyone can see the spectacular fireworks as the Star Warrior destroys his foes, those monsters that threaten Popstar - nay, the universe. These horrible monsters are obliterated for good. Except that for a being hanging on by sheer willpower, death is not an option. For a Soul, survival is worth any cost.
1. Prologue

A ringing of steel, a slam of the hammer, and the unmistakable chimes of star energy echoed through the still air.

The monster screamed, petals flying from its desiccated form as star energy blasted at its body. Insectoid eyes widened in utter panic. Filigree wings fluttered manically in an attempt to escape, trying desperately to survive the attack.

Miraculously, the creature survived. Hanging on to life with every fiber of its being, the creature screamed again. Its mind was chaotic, filled with rage and fear and confusion. It was cold. So cold. Where was the warmth? Where had it gone? It had been so warm, once. It could remember the warmth of… It couldn't remember. Why couldn't it remember?

Another blast of star energy rocketed past the creature, and it let out a shriek. The screams of mercy echoed through its scattered brain. One voice floated to the forefront of its consciousness, only to sink away before it could hear the words. How it longed to hear those words again, if only once.

A razor-edged blade shot through the air, slicing through one of its golden wings. The creature faltered, falling to one side, and the blade returned through its heart.

Piercing screams shook the world, and the monster thrashed in its death throes. With its dying breath, the creature turned its attention to the sky.

The stars were beautiful.

And then its body fell apart, scattering into petals.

The one who killed the monster, a youth with skills beyond his years, looked up as petals showered him. His deep blue eyes blinked as one petal floated in place for a moment, then the petals fell to the world below. The pink warrior removed his cutter helmet, dropping it to the crystalline platform below him. It was always painful to kill the Souls. Every time, he could feel a little more of himself dying with the tortured creatures.

Kirby turned and left the petals behind.

Which was why he didn't see the blue petals falling to the world below Floralia.

* * *

Far below the battleground of Floralia, on the star-shaped world of Popstar, the Dreamstalk still grew.

The magical vines were not nearly as potent as the ones in Floralia. The magical power of the Dreamstalk was largely exhausted by the insect queen's abuse, leaving the plant largely mundane. By Dreamland standards, at least.

In the rural wilds of Dreamland, far from King Dedede's castle or Meta Knight's flying fortress, a small farm sprawled through a clearing in the forest. It was a family affair, run by a small group of completely different creatures that relied upon each other to manage the farm. Many creatures in Dreamland were dangerous, but the farm persevered.

Apart from the occasional monster attack, the farm was quiet and peaceful. They grew fruits and vegetables, enough to feed themselves and many others. It was a stable business; Whispy kept the forest and everything within healthy.

The setting sun shone off of shiny red tomatoes and turned the field of wheat golden. As the day's work came to a close, one of the farm's inhabitants fluttered away from the farmhouse.

"Barney, make sure ta' be back 'afore dinner, ya hear!"

The orange Bronto Burt turned around to shout back. "I know, Wesley! You tell me every day!"

"And ya always return a little later'n before!" Came the retort. "Just don' git lost again!"

"I won't!" Barney rolled his eyes, flying across the field to scoop up a watering pail with his foot.

Like every day for the past year, Barney flew into the forest. The area within a mile of the farm was usually completely safe, thanks to Wesley and Sina. Of course, Barney was going quite a bit further than a mile away, into Whispy's territory, but the tree was docile. Well, most of the time. It went on a rampage maybe once a month, but the Star Warrior was always there to beat the tree down. Like some sort of ritual.

The edge of the farm's territory was clearly delineated by the plant life. At the border of Whispy's part of the forest, the plants grew upwards and closely together, making a wall that was nigh-impassable by normal means. It never really worked, though. Almost every inhabitant of Dreamland had some way to travel beyond simply walking. Barney himself had wings, allowing him to hover over the barrier of plants.

Everyone at the farm knew where Barney went every night. They'd all surreptitiously followed him on one occasion or another, and then gotten chewed out by everyone else for doing so. It wasn't like we was actively hiding it, though. He had no real secrets.

Barney floated up a nearly invisible path to a secluded clearing far into the forest. It was deep into the nearly uncharted depths of Whispy's domain. As far as Barney knew, he was the first one to discover it.

He emerged into the sunlight to see a dazzling array of colors and shapes. Flowers from all over Popstar had, at one point or another, been transplanted to this grove. Most of them Barney had bought himself, specifically to plant here. Others were there naturally.

Rings of flowers made a pattern of concentric circles, with arcing rows forming curved segments. Viewed from above, the field looked like an open rose.

Pop flowers, starbuds, lavabloom, dreampetal, heartleaf, and fairy roses ringed the central attraction, the one that had inspired Barney to start the flower garden in the first place.

A towering Dreamstalk vine, growing from the very center of the field. The sunlight had done it good, but when Barney had found the fine it had been shriveled. Through months upon months of care, his loving touch had restored the Dreamstalk to health, and then further beyond. In the recent months, it had flourished and begun to develop flowerbuds. The smaller flowerbuds on the base of the stalk had bloomed already, emerging into beautifully orange and pink flowers. The biggest flowerbud, at the very top of the Dreamstalk, had yet to open. It mildly worried Barney, since the bud only grew bigger and bigger over the months without opening. At this point it was beginning to bend the whole stalk with its mass. Hopefully it was just still growing.

Barney set to work, watering the flowers in his little garden. He was happy with this, keeping the flowers happy. It was a nice way to spend his evenings.

In the bud, which was more like a cocoon, something shifted in its slumber.


	2. Flower Garden

As the sun began to get lower in the sky, Barney looked up from his work. He was nearly done for today, carrying supplies from one end of the field to the other. Without arms, he was somewhat limited in the jobs he could do, but that didn't stop him from putting in one hundred and one percent.

The bronto burt set down the basket of supplies and turned around to look at the fields. The wheat had all been harvested by Orchid and Sina, and the latter was bringing the harvest down the rows of crop to be bundled together and taken to the mill. Meanwhile, Quartz was overturning the soil and making it ready for the next crop. It was a well-rehearsed process that they all knew well, and as usual it went off without a hitch.

Sina brought the wheat across the field and stacked it on a specially designated palette. The nESP floated across the field, wiping her brow. Unlike many of her kin, she went without a robe, going instead for a skirt, tank-top, and sunhat. She whistled to draw Barney's attention. "Alright big guy, let's get this haul to the mill."

"Right." The palette of wheat had to be almost a dozen times his size, but Barney wasn't worried. He stretched his transparent wings and fluttered off of the ground, hooking the ropes from the palette with his toes and heaving.

A normal bronto burt would've had a nearly impossible task before them. But Barney wasn't worried. He'd always been stronger than the others. Bigger, too. He towered over everyone else when he stood next to them, a trait which had gotten him harassed by normal folk but was incredibly useful on the farm. Raw strength was a trait that the others didn't have.

Barney heaved the palette down the field to the mill. Behind him, Sina set to work sowing the seeds of the next crop across the field, Orchid assisting beside her.

Pain twinged in Barney's wings, but he didn't let it stop him from reaching his destination. The palette hit the ground with a heavy _thump_ , and Barney fluttered to the ground next to it. He blinked the sweat out of his eyes and walked over to the shade of the mill to avoid the heat of the sun. Once there, he dropped to the ground to cool off.

He only looked up when a white shape approached. Quartz was walking over, her beady eyes sweeping over the harvest. She came to a stop next to the pile of wheat stalks and turned towards Barney. The crystalline rocky gave a little smile. "Take the rest of today off. I'll get Wes to help grind the wheat into flour. You did good."

"Thanks Quartz." Barney gave an appreciative grin. "I'm exhausted."

"It's been a long day." Quartz nodded. She tilted her head back and shouted, "Wesley! Get over here!"

"On my way!"

Quartz shook her head and returned her attention to Barney. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."

With that, the rocky walked into the mill. Behind her, the palette of wheat began to slide across the ground, propelled by shifting stones and moving earth. Rock grinding against rock filled the air, as it would for the next hour or so until Quartz had finished grinding the wheat down.

Barney pushed himself to his feet and stretched, staving off soreness by letting his muscles cool down. A couple experimental flaps of his wings lifted him off the ground a bit, and he winced at the feeling. It wasn't too much, although if he tried to carry anything it would probably get a lot worse. Perhaps he had strained himself a little too much. Hopefully nothing that a warm bath couldn't fix.

So he'd walk most of the way, no big deal. Barney started off towards the edge of the field, where his watering pail was waiting.

"Barney!" Wesley called from the other side. "Stay safe. It's about the time of month that Whispy goes bonkers, an' I reckon I caught sighta' some floatin' black monsters."

"I'll be careful!" Barney called back.

"An' be back 'afore dark!"

"I know!" Barney rolled his eyes. Wesley was the self-proclaimed leader of their little family, and as such seemed to think he was responsible for keeping everyone else safe. It was touching, sometimes, but it got annoying really quickly when he was so insistent.

Barney picked up the watering pail with his teeth on the way past, wrinkling his nose at the taste of the metal. It wasn't dirty, he knew that much, but warm steel didn't taste good. Oh well. He could ignore it.

The bronto burt hummed to himself as he walked off into the woods. It was certainly slower by foot, but he had no problems finding the path and running along it.

Barney came to a halt as he reached the wall of plants, hesitating for a moment before lowering the pail to the ground. He stretched his wings, wincing at the discomfort, and fluttered off of the ground. As he had expected, it didn't hurt too much when he wasn't carrying anything. He hooked his foot under the handle of the pail and lifted it up-

And nearly dropped it from the spike of pain. Barney gritted his teeth and flapped over the wall of plants, gently lowering the pail to the ground and landing. Rolling his wings in their sockets, Barney picked the pail back up with his teeth and set off down the overgrown trail to his garden.

As he exited the treeline into the sunny field, his breath caught in his throat. He had walked into the garden before, at around this time of day, too, but every time it happened it still took his breath away.

Glistening puddle lilies reflected the light into the shining starbuds. As the light passed through the starbud petals, the shimmering translucent flowers shot rays of rainbow light over the garden. The heat of the day was enough to bring the lavabloom into partial bloom, shedding orange light over the fairy roses. It was just late enough in the day for the drempetals to open and glow their light blue color, which contrasted with the fading light of the sunglows. The whole scene was beautiful. And yet…

And yet Barney couldn't help but feel like something was different.

His gaze swept over his garden, his heart swelling with pride at the sight of all of the flowers blooming at once. It had taken meticulous planning and Orchid's help to get each flower in exactly the right place to flourish. The reach cacti were sitting between rows of pop flowers, causing the flowers to stay in constant bloom. The lavablooms were in full sun to absorb as much heat as possible. The chillsprouts, conversely, were in full shade next to the freezeflares in order to keep their temperature low. The dreampetals were in the ideal position to absorb starlight, but were sheltered from the sun by the shade of the Dreamstalk-

Barney's jaw dropped, dropping the watering pail with a clang and spilling water over his feet. He didn't even notice.

The Dreamstalk was tall and healthy, covered in pink and orange flowers. That was normal.

It was also bowing under the weight of the immense flower bud at the top of the vine. That was also- to Barney's knowledge – normal.

The sun was exactly on the other side of the giant flower bud from Barney, shining around the closed petals. Or at least, it usually shone around the petals. Barney couldn't tear his eyes away from the now-translucent peals.

Something was _inside_ the flower bud. And it was _moving_.

He caught sight of the silhouette of wings, then a hand pressed against the inner wall of the flower bud.

It wasn't just some kind of creature – there was a _person_ in there!

"Hold on, I'll get you out!" Barney scrambled forwards, hopping up and fluttering over to the giant flower bud. It had to be at least half again his size, having grown to that size over the course of the past year.

Barney hesitated, looking around. He didn't want to just kick the bud, it could hurt the person inside. He looked around for something to cut the petal with-

There! The pruning shears! He was supposed to have brought them back yesterday after Sina helped him out, but he had forgotten. He flew across the field to the shears and snapped up the handles between his feet, returning to the bud. Furrowing his brow, he carefully stabbed the shears into the side of the bud, avoiding the silhouette inside. With the blades securely embedded in the petal, Barney stomped down on the handle.

The shears sliced through the petal with ease, and a gush of clear fluid spurted from the slice. The first stomp successful, Barney stomped on the shears again, slicing all the way to the bottom of the bud.

When the tip of the bud was opened, the flower opened up completely. Clear fluids flooded over the garden, bringing with them the previous inhabitant of the flower bulb. Its load gone, the Dreamstalk straightened, the flower blooming in the waning sunlight.

The form lying on the ground was clearly female, with a body of graceful curves and gentle angles. Barney didn't have the slightest clue what species she could be, he had never seen any sort of wasp-creatures in Dreamland. Her colors were unnaturally vibrant, too, with most of her body a rich indigo shade, and golden yellow stripes around her abdomen. Four golden wings extended from her back, made out of actual filigree. Her gently rounded shoulders ended in stumps, with her indigo-skinned hands pressed palm-down against the ground a short distance away. Her eyes were closed and her lips were moving silently. Barney took a step closer-

Her violet eyes snapped open, wide with panic. The wasp-lady's pushed herself off of the ground with shaking hands, gasps escaping her mouth. She gagged for a moment, then coughed up more of the clear fluid. With her lungs clear now, words tumbled almost inaudibly from her lips.

"Miss? Are you okay?" Barney stepped forwards, eyes wide with worry.

"P-please." Those purple eyes slowly rose to look at Barney. "I d-don't want to die."

The wasp-lady's fingers dug into the dirt, and from the point of contact with the ground spread death and decay. Flowers withered and shriveled up, dying within seconds. Above him, the Dreamstalk only grew taller. Barney took a step back-,

And the wasp-lady collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Barney stared at her unconscious form for a moment before reality snapped back, and he rushed over. She was sleeping calmly now, the wave of decay having stopped when she fell asleep. He couldn't just leave her laying on the ground, whatever was going on. But without hands, he was basically helpless.

As Barney tried to figure out what to do, four shapes hovered into view. They descended from above, with spherical bodies of shimmering black and a single red eye on the front, ringed by orange orbs that gave the things the appearance of sinister flowers. Inexplicable dread struck Barney at that point, and he prepared to do the only thing that came to mind.

"WESLEY! HELP!"

* * *

"Did you hear about the king's banquet, dear?"

"'Course I did. We're supplyin' 'em, after all. One've the king's minions came by th'other day t'place'n order for a thousand tomatoes."

"Was it the polite fellow with the blue bandana?"

"Yep. Seemed pretty fed up with tomatoes, too. Can't imagine why they want so many of 'em."

"I think it's for soup, dear."

"A thousand tomatoes worth of soup? Guess they've a lotta mouths t'feed."

"Most likely. Hand me the next bundle."

Wesley stood up and walked over to the rapidly dwindling pile of wheat. He reached down and grabbed as big a bundle as he could manage, taking it to the millstone to be ground down to flour. As soon as the wheat was dropped into the hopper, the millstone began to turn of its own accord. Clapping his hands together, he returned to his seat. "So, wonder if we'll ever get invited t'one've those feasts."

"Probably not, dear. The king probably doesn't know we exist," Quartz replied, absentmindedly running the millstone as she read a book.

"Well that's awfully cynical've ya," Wesley remarked, leaning back and removing his hat.

"No, dear. It's realistic." Quartz looked up from her book, giving Wesley a look. "Everyone knows how self-absorbed the king is."

"Doesn't make it any less've a downer, though." Wesley shrugged.

"No, unfortunately." Quartz sighed, and her book snapped shut. "Drop the last load in, dear. This one's done."

"Gotcha." Wesley hopped up from his seat again and strode to the last pile of wheat. He scooped it up and dumped it into the hopper. "How d'you think Barney's doin'?"

"He's fine, dear. The boy is stronger than you give him credit for." Quartz rolled her eyes, walking out of the mill. Behind her, the millstone ground to a halt.

"I know he's strong, but this morning there were these big eyeball things floatin' 'round the forest, an' who even knows what they're up to." Wesley gathered the flour and, with practiced movements, transferred it to a bag specifically for that purpose. He quickly tied the bag off, heaving it off the ground and over his shoulder. "I didn't like the look of 'em."

"You really shouldn't judge by appearances, dear."

"I didn't judge by appearances!" Wesley protested, accelerating to follow close behind the rock elemental, "I judged by gut feelin'!"

"Which is another way to say that you don't actually know." Quartz gave him The Look, and Wesley sighed in defeat.

"Still, Whispy usually goes nuts 'round this time of month, an' the kid's garden is in that crazy tree's territory." Wesley shrugged. "I dunno, maybe I am just worryin' 'bout nothin'."

"You always do." Quartz sighed, shaking her head. "I'll go let Orchid and Sina know that we're done for today. Knowing Sina, she's already dragged Orchid off somewhere."

"Prob'ly the barn again. Fer a mind-readin' prodigy, she ain't very creat-,"

"WESLEY! HELP!"

Wesley's eyes widened suddenly, and he dropped the bag of flour to the dirt. Quartz turned and looked at him, her own eyes widening. "What do you hear?"

"Barney needs us." Wesley bolted off towards the barn, slamming the door open.

As he had expected, both Sina and Orchid were there. Well, saying that he hadn't been sure would be lying, and he was cheating a little bit, but it was true that while he wasn't surprised, the same couldn't be said of the other two. Sina squeaked in surprise as he burst into the barn, pulling away from the vibrant leafan. "Wesley! We weren't doing anything too bad, I swear! We were just-,"

"Not the time fer ramblin', girl. Get yerself together and get t'Barney's garden. Might need ya both." Wesley ignored the nESP and the leafan, reaching to a hook beside the door and grabbing the whip bundled there. "Be quick."

His weapon of choice in hand, Wesley turned and ran off towards Barney's garden. He sped past Quartz, who was much slower than he was, but didn't slow down. She would get there eventually, but Wesley would be there first.

Wesley reached the barrier of plants within minutes, lashing out with his whip to grab a branch high above him and swing over. A deft twist of his wrist released the whip's hold, and he was off.

Seconds later, he emerged from the treeline to a ghastly sight.

Four of the orb monsters he had seen that morning were hovering above the clearing, attempting to attack something on the ground. They fired beams of crackling black energy, missing by inches due to the orange shape buzzing around them. Barney was fighting with everything he had, kicking with force that Wesley knew was enough to crack skulls. The attacks had little effect, though, simply phasing through the target or missing by inches. Barney did succeed at forcing the creatures to readjust their aim, though, as each attempted blow caused the things to float a little bit out of alignment. For all their menace, the black creatures were methodical and precise, and Wesley could use that.

"Barney! Get out of here!" Wesley shouted, cracking his whip. He launched the tip of the leather tool into the eye of one of the orbs. Where it normally would have gouged out the orb, the whip only cracked on empty air and forced the thing backwards.

"I can't! I can't just leave her here!" Barney protested, fluttering down to the ground.

Wesley glanced down at the shape on the ground and cursed. "Can ya fly 'er out?"

"I sprained my wing earlier." Barney looked panicked at this point. "What do I do?!"

"Well, there's all sorts of things you can do. You can leave, let her die, buzz off – oh, that one works even better since you've got the right wings – and you could let us deal with it." A new voice spoke as Sina floated out of the forest. The ESPer's hands waved through the air, lifting the unconscious creature into the air. "Or, you know, you could carry her out while me and Orchid do our best to blast these darkness orb things out of the air."

At these words, a flurry of leaves shot from the forest canopy. The razor-edged leaves shot through the orbs without effect, but the gust of wind they carried had far more effect. The eyeball creatures were blown back by a significant amount now. Once Sina set the unconscious creature on Barney's back, she went to work with her powers, creating orbs of energy that launched the creatures backwards.

It was clear by their movements that the creatures were beginning to get angry at this point. The four orbs retreated a short distance, hovering in a square formation. Beams of crackling energy shot into the air, bending and warping in strange ways until they wound together to form a cannon. The metal weapon rotated in the air, aiming at the small group of people, and fired a cannonball.

A wall of rock erupted from the ground, ripping up flowers and grass as it blocked the attack. Wesley turned around to shoot a grateful look at Quartz, who nodded back and lowered the wall back into the ground.

Without warning, massive wooden tendrils erupted from the ground. It seemed as though the conflict had finally grabbed Whispy's attention, and the forest's guardian wasn't having any of it. Roots shot upwards and impaled the orblike creatures, for once dealing notable damage to the monsters. All four orbs let out hideous shrieks, their red eyes rolling madly in their sockets as green grew around them. For a brief, horrible moment the shrieks turned to screams, and then the creatures were gone.

In their places were orange and pink petals, sealed tightly into flower buds.

Wesley let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding and wiped his brow. "Well that wasn't what I was expectin'."

"That was weird. Like, super weird. What were those things? Why are the roots turning into vines? What's up with the flowers? I can't even sense the weird monsters inside the flowers! It's like their minds are just- just _poof_!"

"Sina, now's not a good time." Quartz looked around the clearing. "We need to get to safety before more show up."

"Well obviously, but it still doesn't make any real sense-," Sina began, only to stop as Wesley put up a hand to silence her.

"Doesn't matter. Let's thank the star that we're safe and go home." Wesley turned to look at Barney, who had stopped just at the edge of the clearing. "And then Barney's gonna explain where the lady came from."

Barney nodded, swallowing. "Please, I think she's hurt-,"

"It's fine." Wesley looked around again, taking a shuddering breath. "We'll take care of everythin'."

Wesley turned and walked back down the trail. After a moment, the others followed.

And the woman from the flower bud twitched in her sleep.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Greetings, people!

For readers of my other work, you may be wondering why I'm starting _another_ story before finishing the ones I have. The answer is that I'm so burned out on my other stories that I haven't been able to bring myself to write them for the past several months. I figured that leaving my account dead would be a waste, though, so here I am with a new story.

Sectonia is by far one of my favorite villains in Kirby - heck, one of my favorite villains in most video games. Except that she's not even to blame for being evil- the mirror is. But it wasn't until I read a story called _Shards of your voice_ by Wallagen that I realized that I didn't want her to meet the fate that the games had handed her. Even without the True Arena's Soul of Sectonia, she is well and truly dead by the time Kirby is done with her. So here we are.

If there are any people reading who want to tell me that the Soul bosses aren't canon: I know. I feel like the Souls are something that gives Kirby villains just that extra bit of clout, clawing their way back from the brink of defeat with every fiber of their being. Add to that the fact that every Soul is equivalent to some kind of demigod, and there was my reason for Sectonia's survival. They don't die when their body is destroyed; they find a way back from death.

For those wondering about Sectonia's appearance and why some things are missing, she doesn't have her clothes. No gloves, no heart shaped breastplate, no dress, and no facemask. Yes, I feel like the yellow markings on Sectonia's face are a mask. Removing that feature gives her the ability to emote more expressively, which is why I did so.

The farm has a name: Green Acres. It just hasn't been referred to as such yet. Mostly because I didn't decide on a name until I was almost halfway through this chapter. You'll be getting answers on the various inhabitants of the farm soon.

If you liked something, or disliked something, please let me know! I always aim to improve!


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